DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland's majestic sail-training ship, the Asgard II, foundered off the French coast Thursday, but its 25 passengers and crew escaped safely in lifeboats.
Commandant Fergal Purcell, spokesman for the Irish Defence Forces, says French rescuers took everyone in the lifeboats to the island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, about 15 kilometres off the coast of Brittany.
Two French coast guard vessels and two French naval helicopters helped in the rescue.
Purcell says he doesn't know what caused the ship to sink.
He says the captain sent out an SOS shortly after 2 a.m. after an alarm sounded and the crew discovered the hull was rapidly flooding. The 27-year-old vessel sank about seven hours later.
The Irish-built Asgard II was a brigantine, a two-masted vessel with a square-rigged foremast, much in the style of a classic pirate ship. The Irish government commissioned it to provide adventure training in sailing.
At the time of its sinking, the Asgard II was nearing the end of a week-long voyage from Falmouth, southwest England, to the French port of La Rochelle, with 20 fee-paying "trainees" on board aged from 16 to their mid-60s.
An Irish navy vessel, the Niamh, and along with Irish Embassy officials from Paris were travelling to Belle-Ile to help the stranded crew and passengers return home.
The sinking could mean the demise of an Irish tradition. Since 1968, Ireland has provided a state-owned vessel so civilian novices could get a taste of sailing the open sea, but is unlikely to fund a replacement in these financially tough times.
A former captain of the Asgard II, Frank Traynor, said the ship was built to survive hurricane-strength winds. He said he suspected a faulty "sea cock" - one of dozens of valves designed to permit sea water to enter the ship to cool engines or flush toilets - was to blame.
"Certainly she had several pumps on board," Traynor said. "But if it was one of the main sea cocks that came off, then it would be same as for any ship: You wouldn't be able to pump the water out and it would be a matter of time before she sinks."
Traynor bemoaned the sinking.
"She was built specifically for sail training, to take the toughest water that could ever be thrown at it," he told the Irish national broadcaster RTE. "I was with her in several hurricanes, and I would prefer to be on Asgard than on ships 10 times her size."
